Hate Ledger

No. You describe money the way you already think about it: money came in, money went out, this was for fuel, that was a client payment. Behind the scenes each entry is posted as a balanced double-entry journal so your books stay accurate, but you never have to pick a debit or a credit yourself. If you or your accountant want to see the underlying journal, it is one click away on every transaction.

Most self-employed people in the United States should reserve roughly 25 to 30 percent of net profit to cover self-employment tax plus federal income tax, with more on top in states that levy their own income tax. Rather than guessing, Hate Ledger recalculates your reserve every time money moves, using your filing status, state, expected deductions, and profit so far this year. The number you see is the number to keep untouched in a separate account.

You need to be able to show what you earned, what you spent, and that each business expense was ordinary and necessary for your trade. In practice that means dated receipts or invoices, bank and card statements, a contemporaneous mileage log with date, destination, purpose, and miles, and payroll records if you employ anyone. Keep them for at least three years from the filing date — seven if you claim a loss on a bad debt or worthless security. Receipts you capture in the app are stored with the transaction, so an audit request becomes an export rather than a weekend of searching.

Yes. Import a CSV export from your bank or your current software and the system maps columns, detects duplicates, and suggests categories from the description. You can bring in an opening balance so the ledger starts where your old records ended, which means you do not have to re-enter years of history to get a correct balance sheet.

Nothing breaks. Categories can be changed at any time, and every change is written to an audit trail showing who changed what and when. The system also learns: once you recategorize a vendor, future transactions from that vendor are suggested the new way. Entries that look unusual — an amount far outside your normal range for that category, a duplicate within a few days, a date in the future — are flagged for review instead of silently landing in your reports.

It does. Create an invoice, send it by email, and let automated reminders chase overdue balances on a schedule you choose. Payments received are matched against the open invoice so your accounts receivable stays accurate without a second data entry step, and sales tax is calculated per line where it applies.

Payroll runs with federal withholding computed from the current IRS Publication 15-T tables, plus Social Security, Medicare, and the state withholding rules that apply to your employees. Contractors are tracked separately through the year so 1099-NEC totals are already correct when January arrives.

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, access is scoped per business so a member can only see the entity they were invited to, and two-factor authentication is available on every account. Bank connections are read-only: the app can see transactions, never move money. You can export everything you have entered, at any time, in an open format.

Invite them with a scoped role and they get exactly the access you grant — usually read access to reports plus the ability to post adjusting entries. They get a proper trial balance, general ledger, profit and loss, balance sheet, and cash flow statement, all prepared on accrual or cash basis, along with the month-end close checklist showing which periods are locked.

Ten minutes for most people: name your business, pick your state and filing status, connect or import an account, and answer a short set of questions about how you work. The first useful number — how much is safe to spend this week — appears as soon as your first transactions land.